Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-p9bg8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T14:33:16.757Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Accelerating universe and the time-dependent fine-structure constant

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 October 2010

Yasunori Fujii*
Affiliation:
Advanced Research Institute for Science and Engineering, Waseda University, Tokyo, 169-8555, Japan; email: [email protected]
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

I start with assuming a gravitational scalar field as the dark-energy supposed to be responsible for the accelerating universe. Also from the point of view of unification, a scalar field implies a time-variability of certain “constants” in Nature. In this context I once derived a relation for the time-variability of the fine-structure constant α: Δα/α =ζ Ƶ(α/π) Δσ, where ζ and Ƶ are the constants of the order one, while σ on the right-hand side is the scalar field in action in the accelerating universe. I use the reduced Planckian units with c= =MP(=(8π G)−1/2)=1. I then compared the dynamics of the accelerating universe, on one hand, and Δα/α derived from the analyses of QSO absorption lines, Oklo phenomenon, also different atomic clocks in the laboratories, on the other hand. I am here going to discuss the theoretical background of the relation, based on the scalar-tensor theory invented first by Jordan in 1955.

Type
Contributed Papers
Copyright
Copyright © International Astronomical Union 2010